If not sold to a museum or collector, where do newly commissioned sculptures and installations go after they’ve been exhibited? The answer, as the artists behind Glasgow’s Sculpture Placement Group (SPG) are keenly aware, is usually into storage at either great cost or, more commonly, great risk to the work – in damp studios, garages and sheds. In an attempt to address this, Martin Craig, Kate V Robertson and Michelle Emery-Barker are presenting ‘Sculpture Showroom’, which they describe as ‘an adoption service for sculptural objects, seeking to match works of art with new guardians’. Featuring work by eight Glasgow-based artists – Laura Aldridge, Beagles and Ramsay, Mary Redmond, Andrew Lacon, Rachel Lowther, Nick Evans, Felix Welch and Littlewhitehead – SPG stress that this is not a group show, the point being to highlight the issues around what they see as an unsustainable curatorial desire for new work. One of the sculptural installations on show has already been found a new home, but SPG recognize that they have barely scratched the surface of the problem – the accompanying catalogue features 95 works by 54 artists, all of which are ‘offered for adoption’.
- Chris Sharratt